Baby Rump Cake

My little sister wanted to throw a baby shower for a friend.  She asked if I would help make the cake.  She sent me a few pictures of baby shower cakes that she liked.  One of them was a cake that I had seen before and thought was really pretty cute.  We decided to tackle the baby rump cake.  Again, short on time (did this in two evenings) so all I got pictures of was the final product. 

Night 1:  We made the gluten free yellow cake and raspberry frosting.  We also shaped rice crispy treats for the rump, legs, and feet.  We covered them in chocolate to try and fill in some of the divots.  I hadn't tried that before - and didn't think it really made a difference - maybe I needed more chocolate on top?  Anyway, we called it done for the night.

Night 2:  We split tasks here.  My sister began smoothing out the chocolate on the rice crispy body parts with a knife while I cut the cake into three sections, filled it and covered it with the raspberry frosting.  I find, with fondant covered cakes, the more layers of frosting inside the cake the better.  Next, she began coloring fondant while I covered the cake with white.  FYI, we did put some dowels in the cake and cardboard between the rump and cake to help hold some of the weight.  I added the ribbon around the border and created the bow.  Then, we tucked the baby rump in by covering it with a blanket and added some frills to the diaper.  While I did that, my sister cut out the circles and placed them on the cake.  Last, we put the feet on and added the toes.  Great team work and a really cute little baby shower cake!

Hello Kitty Cake Pops

 My daughter's 3rd birthday was quickly approaching and I was going to be out of town for several days leading up to it.  I was concerned that I would not have enough time to prep and execute the decorating of a cake.  I decided to try out cake pops.  I could make the cake and frosting ahead of time, shape them into cake balls and finish decorating them the morning of the party.  I love the bakerella website and drew my inspiration from her.  I didn't get pictures of the process as I was in a rush.  However, know that it may have been just as easy for me to do a cake.  These little gals were quite time consuming, and I ran into many difficulties.  But as always, I learned a few things and the final product was delicious. 

I basically followed bakerellas directions as to how to do these pretty little kitties.  A few difference: 1) I had to double dip my cake pops in the white chocolate as my daughter wanted chocolate cake.  In order to cover up the chocolate I had to double dip.  2)  I used royal icing for the eyes and whiskers.  I have the very same marker as bakeralla, but for some reason it did not produce very solid lines.  3)  I used royal icing instead of a mini m&m for the middle of the bow.  I decided to go with a pink bow rather than a red and I don't think they have pink mini m&m's. 

My daughter's favorite part?  Picking out all of the pink heart sprinkles (come with red white and pink) for Kitty's bows.  If you ask her, she'd tell you that she did the bows :). 

Onesie Cookies

I have wanted to make onesie cookies for a LONG time.  I saw them once on an episode of the Martha Stewart Show.  She actually wrapped them in clear plastic bags and handed them out as party favors - cute idea.  My neighbor asked if I'd make some cookies for a baby shower.  She explained to me that everyone who came to the shower was to bring a onesie.  The mom-to-be then had to guess which guest brought each onesie.  So, the idea was to make several different designs to kind of go with the theme of the game.

First, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe and baked several onesie shaped cookies.  This was done using a wilton cookie cutter. 

I made a few different colors of thin royal icing and did a quick flood coat.  With some of them (light green in the back) I placed some blue drops on the cookie while the green was still very wet.  The blue sank right into the green and it looked like one solid coat.  Very neat!

Using some thicker royal icing I added some details. The plan was to use some mini dragees as snaps, but they didn't ship in time.  Instead I used the white royal icing and came back and painted it with a bit of silver luster dust and vodka.

  

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out.  

"Watercolor" Owls

 My inspiration for this cake was Lauren Alexander's watercolor paintings.  This cake went a long with the onesie cookies.  The mother-to-be had made an etsy wish list of items she wanted for the baby and for the baby's nursery.  One of the items she had on her wish list were Alexander's "Triple Threat Set of 3 Owl Prints".  I loved the colors!  I wanted this cake to have a bit of artistic flair, so rather than using a standard sized cake I made a really tall cake and then cut the top at an angle.  I used five 6" round cakes and split each in half to fill with chocolate ganache.  It stood over a foot high.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the munchkin in the back is smiling - she thinks I am taking a picture of her :)

Then I frosted the tower of cake with more chocolate ganache.

Then covered it with fondant - this was not a pretty process.  The final product turned out just fine.  I need to find a better way to cover a cylinder cake with fondant though.

I then sponge painted blue and purple (using color dust and vodka) on my clean canvas.  This gave me blue fingers.

My husband knows that I am not taking his picture - but he thinks it's funny to sneak in anyway.

I then began to paint my tree (again using color dust and vodka), which was on a separate piece of fondant.  I wanted the tree and owls to literally pop off the cake - so I made them on separate layers.

See the blue fingers?

This time we were taking her picture - isn't she cute!

I applied the tree to the cake using some royal icing.  Then I began adding the owls (which were another layer).  I attached the owls with royal icing as well.  I also added a strip of white along the bottom to serve as a taped off border - like the print.

I added in some details with royal icing and more painting.  I also added another border along the top.

This was my final cake.  I was pretty happy with the overall look.  I wish that I had made the background a little bit lighter.  I have to remind myself to take a step back from time to time as I'm working to see what I am making.  I have a tendency to get in this zone and just keep plugging away. 

I do love the little owls though :)

Grace quickly grabbed her camera.  I think she has seen us do this a time or two.

Chocolate Covered Oreos

Make ahead:  I made orange and green royal icing.  Using the #32 tip I made single shells on a piece of wax paper.  I then came back with a small round tip (#2 or #3) and added a little stem.  These can be made months in advance.

Dip Oreos in chocolate and place dried royal icing pumpkin on cookie while chocolate is still wet.

Nutter Butter Ghosts

  Super simple!  Place a package of Nutter Butters in the freezer.  I wait until the next day.  Dip them in melted white chocolate and decorate with chocolate chips (normal size for mouth and mini for the eyes).  That is all there is to it.

Pumpkin Marshmallow

 

 This is a fudge dipped marshmallow.  However, you could use orange candy melts as well.  I took a large marshmallow (the giant kind) and placed a caramel apple stick in it.  I then dipped the marshmallow in vanilla fudge (colored orange).  I used semi-sweet chocolate chips (they have a better triangular shape than the others) for the eyes and nose and mini chocolate chips for the mouth.  I put them into place as the fudge began to cool a bit so that they wouldn't slide.  I wrapped them in individual bags and used some green string to seal the bag.  Super sweet treat!

Mummy Cupcake

 

 Just like the owl cupcake, it is pretty amazing the amount of mummy cupcakes you can see when you google it.  For this gem, I used a knife to cover the cupcake with frosting.  I placed two chocolate chips for eyes.  Then, using a basket weave tip - smooth side up, I used random patterns to cover the cupcake.  I also made one swipe around the side to clean up the edges a bit (not too much, you still want a rustic look).  There you have it - fun and easy.  It is amazing to see how two chocolate chips and some frosting can take on personality.

Owl Cupcakes

I have seen these owl cupcakes all over the web, and you can make them even cuter with a little extra piping - but the goal this month was to make something cute fast.  Here is how I did it.

Split the Oreos in half - this is an art and takes some practice.  I have seen online that some people stick them in a microwave for a few seconds, but I didn't find that helpful. 

Cut the 'non-frosted' side into thirds.  I found it best to cut right along the "Oreo" logo in the center.

Discard (or eat) any broken or extra cookie pieces.  I used candy melts for the center of the eye, but I saw people using M&M's and Junior Mints as well.  Whatever you have around will probably work.  I used a bit of melted white chocolate as glue.  Again, that is what I had handy.

I used more candy melts (orange) for the beak.  I simply cut them in half.  Again, you could use many things.  I even saw someone used some banana Runts. 

I used a very light chocolate frosting.  I used my standard 1M tip.  Another fun way to do this would be to lay down a layer of frosting as your glue, layer the parts, then come back with something like the grass tip to add texture around the eyes and nose.

Frost the cupcake.  I started in the center and worked my way around.

Place eyes.  Pupil placement is important - it determines the facial expression on your little owl.

Add the 1/3 Oreo as the tufts on top of the owls head.

Finally the nose.  And you have a really cure little owl cupcake. 

Sunflower Cupcake

My parents own a pumpkin patch.  I have spent the last 4 weeks working every day for them.  Needless to say, I haven't had much time to blog.  However, I did log some time in making some sweet yummies!  I had to come up with some ideas that were cute, but not time consuming to make.  So this was the first idea.  Simply take a cupcake and put a little frosting on top and an Oreo cookie on top of that.  Use a leaf tip to add a few layers of petals with some yellow buttercream frosting and you have yourself a cute little sunflower.  More simple fall ideas to come.

Fall Wedding Cakes

What is better than a wedding cake?  Two wedding cakes!

A few months ago, my husbands Aunt asked if I'd make her a wedding cake, she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting and fall leaves and flowers down the side of the cake.  I came up with an idea and sent it to her.  She responded with, "can you make two cakes?"  One of them as we had already discussed and one similar only carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  My plan was to get started on the gumpaste flowers weeks in advance, but time got away from me.  The week before the event, the scramble began.  So, my intent was to take pictures of all of the flowers in stages...

 

 But that is as far as I got. :)  As I get working on a time crunch I forget to stop to click the camera.  Oh well.  This is the beginning of the roses that I made.  I placed them all on wires (new for me), not sure it helped me tremendously in arranging them, but it was nice to try something new. 

 I made a double batch of chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting.  I've never made chocolate ganache before. It was surprisingly easy and I loved how smoothly it went on the cake.  I'll definitely use it again.

 I spent an entire day baking 6 cakes (2 8" and 4 12" to be stacked).

 I frosted them separately and then stacked them.  There is filling inside the cakes as well.

 We drove an hour and a half to the site of the reception with the cakes frosted and stack.  The flowers were all ready to go as well.  I wanted to put it all together there so that I didn't have to worry about anything shifting on the long car ride.  In the picture above, I'm adding the shell border around the base of each cake.

 Above is a lot of the flowers and leaves that again were made ahead of time.  I tried modeling chocolate for the first time - hoping to make the leaves out of it.  It was very easy to make, but it was far to soft when we tried making the leaves.  At 10:00 the night before we decided not to mess with it and to use the gumpaste instead.  I have a lot of the modeling chocolate left over, so I think I might mess around with it a bit now to see what I can do with it without a time line.

Below, are the finished products.  I was very pleased with the finished product.  Which I don't say too often.  I spent over 40 hours on these two cakes.  Incredible amount of time, but I learned a lot and enjoyed my time (for the most part). 

65

Just when I think I've got it all figured out, God humbles me.  For a gentleman's 65th birthday I was asked to make some cookies (to hang from a tree) and mini cupcakes.  I found the cutest cookies to inspire me and I decided to create the cupcakes to match.  I was given the colors orange and teal to match the birthday color theme.  I started by creating royal icing 65's, larger ones for the cookies and smaller ones for the cupcakes.  I made far more than I would need as I knew there would be some breakage.

 They did not dry!  I'm not sure what happened.  I've never had difficulty with royal icing.  So, with less time to allow them to dry I had to come up with a different idea.  Idea number two, the newly developed plan B was chocolate.  Through a crazy combination of orange, red, and brown we created the right color of orange and my husband was tasked to created the 65's for the cupcakes while I worked on the ones for the cupcakes.  We were crunched a bit for time (wasn't expecting to be making all of the numbers again).

 Cupcakes were frosted, and sprinkled and each received a chocolate 65.

I love baking/decorating sugar cookies!  I used a really thin royal icing to flood each cookie and placed a chocolate 65 on each while the icing was still wet.  After the icing dried and added the white.  I used a sheer white ribbon to thread through each of the holes so that they could be hung at the site of the party. 

While this project took longer than I expected, they turned out really well.  Super cute and really delicious (don't worry, there were extras that I was able to sample).